Santeri Alkio

Santeri Alkio (born Aleksander Filander; 17 June 1862 – 24 July 1930) was a Finnish politician, author and journalist. He is also considered to be the ideological father of the Finnish Centre Party or the Agrarian League (Maalaisliitto) as it was known prior to the 1960's.

History

Alkio was born in Laihia; his parents were Juho and Maria (née Jakku) Filander. He married teacher Anna Augusta Falenius in 1896.

Initially Santeri Alkio was active in the Young Finnish Party, but in the end decided it was too liberal for the farming population; urbanized parties did not, in his estimation, pay enough attention to the causes that were most important to farmers. To keep the agrarian folk from becoming ensnared by socialism, he founded the Etelä-Pohjanmaan Nuorsuomalainen Maalaisliitto ("Young-Finnish Countrymens' Union of Southern Ostrobothnia"), which he later fused into the less ideological Maalaisväestön liitto ("Union of the Rural Population", later Centre Party of Finland). Alkio became the chief ideologue of the Maalaisliitto, and is still considered the father of the party in spirit. The party still refers to alkioish tendencies in some of its factions.

Alkio was a member of the Finnish House of Representatives from 1907 to 1908 and again from 1914 to 1922. He was vice-chairman of the Eduskunta in 1917 and 1918. When the October Revolution began in Russia, the Bolshevik Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia led to controversy in the Finnish parliament on how to respond. Based on Alkio's proposal, the Parliament of Finland assumed sovereignty in Finland on 15 November, eventually leading to the Finnish Declaration of Independence on 6 December (Independence Day of Finland). After independence, Alkio continued in parliament as the minister of social affairs from 1919 to 1920. He was the minister of social affairs of the Vennola government from (15 August 1919 – 15 March 1920). An ardent temperance-movement activist, he participated in drafting the Finnish Prohibition and also was the minister responsible for the confirmation of president K. J. Ståhlberg.